I’ve only got the 450D but that doesn’t matter………………
I will soon be an official photograper (1 of 7) at a Sports event.
Participants in this Sport will be 1800 players, under 16’s.
All of which, their Dad(Mum) will want a piccy of little Johnny in action.
So, we are going to Blitz the fields (All 10 of them!) of play and then quickly get the Contact prints up in our Tent. We have a small Window of opportunity to sell on the day, thus: –
There will be no time to post-process them, other than a crop.
Obviously, there will be after sales, but the order needs to be placed, and thus we need the contact prints up.
This is the opposite of my camera work, I shoot in Raw, convert all to Jpeg for rapid analysis / show people….then I pick ones which are worthy of Photoshop.
So, I am already going to switch from Raw to Jpeg in the camera. That will (a) Allow hundreds more shots per card, and (b) allow more shots per “Motordrive” to get the best in the action sequences.
I am thinking also of having the camera do the sharpening. But how much?
Also leaving it on Average White Balance?
What other settings does the team think?
By: PeeDee - 27th February 2011 at 23:58
large jpeg on Canon set for landscape gives a degree of in camera sharpening and saves time in postwork.
Be very very careful regards legal aspect of your project, school sports ground is private land and you will need permission for each person that you photograph, it is a legal minefield and many pros have decided to stopcovering these events.
Yes I can hear you saying that it is not logical because many parents take snaps of the event, but as soon as you start making money you have to take a pro view and cover the legal side.
I know. We all have our CIB checks etc. even though I am already cleared for the Cubs / Scouts it needs doing for every type of event.
We are the official Photographic team so we have vests and passes etc. and 2 of the lads are fully qualified NHS 1st aiders…altough obviously cant mend broken things or give medicines.
As for shooting in Raw at such events, well there will be no time to post process the images on the day. The PC’s being used do not have lightroom or Canon DPP or Photoshop CS 5.
And, I will need to use lots of continious shooting, Raw takes too long to write to the card/doesn’t write enough from the cache memory etc.
I can make a hell of a difference to a poor Jpeg in Genuine Fractals! ;-).
I’ve upped a 2mp picture from a cheap Kodak point and shoot, (Which was cropped more than 50%) good enough to print A3 with no discernable tiling or edge teeth. It was a portrait too, so I had to get the eyes etc. looking great.
Short experiments today, just using MS Picture Manager for viewing….
Camera set to best qual Jpeg.
User Def 1, Picture style Standard.
Sharpness at 7
Contrast and Saturation at 1 (Might give the sat at 2 on the day if it’s dull and I might set the contrast at 2 and sacrifice some of the sharpness, acutance is acutance LoL)
Colour tone at null.
Results were perfectly acceptable for the needs.
It took about 11 shots before there was a pause in the writing to card. That of course is variable to the amount of data in the picture.
By: scotavia - 27th February 2011 at 10:16
large jpeg on Canon set for landscape gives a degree of in camera sharpening and saves time in postwork.
Be very very careful regards legal aspect of your project, school sports ground is private land and you will need permission for each person that you photograph, it is a legal minefield and many pros have decided to stopcovering these events.
Yes I can hear you saying that it is not logical because many parents take snaps of the event, but as soon as you start making money you have to take a pro view and cover the legal side.
By: Al - 27th February 2011 at 06:55
I think I would rather buy more memory cards and shoot in Raw, than let the camera decide on losing image quality and sharpness…
By: PeeDee - 27th February 2011 at 02:00
Great idea, I hope it works for you.
If you are going straight to print then you could probably get away with in-camera sharpening. Images for printing needs more sharpening than images for the web, so shooting in JPEG may work.
If it is a disaster then you will have had the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and go on to better things from there.
Jpeg will have to work. Between the 7 of us there will be more than 7,000 shots.
In camera sharpening will have to work. Test day is later today, weather looks OK.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not green with a camera, but I don’t like jpeg and I don’t like in-camera sharpening, so I’ve never even bothered to find out which settings are best. So I was asking for clues.
The aftermarket sales, I will of course be able to get them home, “Up” them if necessary in Genuine Fractals on Photshop CS 2. Then open Photoshop CS5 and continue editing. Genuine Fractals doesn’t work on CS5 yet.
By: Lincoln 7 - 26th February 2011 at 13:20
Do not argue with PMN .:rolleyes: Please 🙂
They were not arguing Anna, just discussing a Posting, however, why on earth they needed dualing flintlock pistols, and a manservant with a First Aid kit is beyond me!!;)
Lincoln .7
:diablo:
By: Wallace - 26th February 2011 at 07:30
Great idea, I hope it works for you.
If you are going straight to print then you could probably get away with in-camera sharpening. Images for printing needs more sharpening than images for the web, so shooting in JPEG may work.
If it is a disaster then you will have had the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and go on to better things from there.
By: PMN - 26th February 2011 at 01:30
Do not argue with PMN .:rolleyes: Please 🙂
Who’s arguing? He asked people for their thoughts and I gave an opinion, what’s the problem? :confused:
PeeDee, if the weather really is that bad then I usually find forgetting about the camera and finding a pub is a pretty good plan!
By: Lincoln 7 - 26th February 2011 at 00:40
Do not argue with PMN .:rolleyes: Please 🙂
PeeDee. One of the Canons I have is the same as yours, I shoot in Jpeg, I find it easier to “Play around with on my program”.
I agree with PNM as that the ballance is very good set at “Normal”, You may wish to take two or three extra batteries with you as it sounds like you will be needing them, I have 3 prime I.S lense in my outfit, but the one most used even for my grandchildrens sports day is the Ef 28 to 135 I.S. USM.
Tried it out in a microlight over Lincoln Cathederal, wind plus vibration, plus I.S pulled out some good shots. If you lived near me, you could borrow them willingly.
Despite all the advances in cameras, one of the best I have ever used, (It was part of the kit in my patrol car for photos ot scenes of RTAs etc) was the Zorky 4!!
Lincoln .7
By: Flygirl - 25th February 2011 at 19:19
Do not argue with PMN .:rolleyes: Please 🙂
By: PeeDee - 25th February 2011 at 19:04
Obviously, but I’m not going on a test run in the mist and rain of this evening.
Weekend looks poor too.
By: PMN - 25th February 2011 at 16:53
waiting for the weather!
Considering you don’t know what the conditions will be like on the day there isn’t much point in only doing test shots when the weather’s good. Personally I’d be trying to find something that works in all conditions rather than something that just works in decent conditions.
By: PeeDee - 25th February 2011 at 16:46
Yeah, I too have all the camera functions “Nulled” usually.
Lens, I may just borrow a pals 210 “L” series.:cool:
My best quality lens hasn’t got stabilisation on, I may use that if the weather is good, 400 ISO and I’ll be away. My 400 zoom may not be needed as we can right up close anyway. I will have my trusty old Panasonic FZ20 round my neck too, that has a good 12x zoom (That’s about 400mm actually) and stabilisation that is actually better than Canon’s.
Test shots on sharpening………..waiting for the weather!
By: PMN - 25th February 2011 at 16:05
I am thinking also of having the camera do the sharpening. But how much?
Also leaving it on Average White Balance?
What other settings does the team think?
How much sharpening you use is really down to personal taste. I almost always shoot RAW with all internal parameters set to zero so I’m not really sure what to recommend, just have a fiddle, take a few test shots and see what works best to your eyes. Average white balance on modern Canon DSLR’s is excellent so should give good results. As for general settings, I’d always shoot things like action sports with the lens wide open (assuming you have a lens with enough quality to allow you to still get sharp results). This will do two things: give you a quicker shutter speed and shallow depth of field, so the specific person you’re shooting will be very much the focus of the image.
Sign In
February 25, 2011 at 3:41 pm